Fruit feeders have become necessary pieces of equipment in mechanized processing of fruit pieces, including such types of fruit as oranges, bell peppers, grapefruit, apples, and the like, as those skilled in the art will appreciate. Because of the desirability of having reliable, low maintenance, and relatively economical equipment, fabrication of fruit feeders adapted for synchronized automatic operation is an important and difficult aspect of food machinery construction and production.
Synchronizable, automatically feedable fruit feeders which employ entirely mechanical elements for power transfer are subject to the disadvantage that, should an equipment failure occur, such machinery typically tends to continue operation resulting in additional damage to equipment, and even break-up of certain subassemblies, so that excessive down time and high maintenance costs can become a serious matter in a food processing facility, particularly during a harvest season.
There is a need in the food processing field for relatively simple, reliable, long operating easily serviceable fruit feeder mechanisms which are adapted not only for synchronized, automatic operation, but also for use in combination with downstream food processing machinery.